1. Why you were
looking forward to going to the ground (or not as the case may be)

Being a brand new
ground and now another to cross off the list, visiting the Ricoh arena was
pencilled in from the start of the season. I must regrettably admit I had
never visited Highfield Road, but with Coventry being one of the more
local grounds I decided it was a must.

2. How easy was your journey/finding the ground/car parking

The Arena is very
easy to find, being just 2 minutes from the M6 and accessed by a dual
carriageway. However, there were no signs pointing you in the direction of
parking facilities so it was a case of follow everyone else.

On seeing about a
hundred cars parked on the embankment of the A444, we decided to pull up
behind one of them and walk two minutes to the stadium. There were many
police around this A444 but they seemed OK with the cars being parked
there. I heard later that the minimum to park elsewhere was £5, and £10 at
the ground itself which had a lot of empty spaces (surprise, surprise).

Just before and
after half time, the announcer on behalf of the police, asked for all cars
parked on the A444 to be moved, but judging by the number of cars when we
returned, no one took a blind bit of notice. The police had witnessed
people parking there yet hadn't thought to tell them there and then? Why?

After the game we
found out why. The police had decided to put parking tickets on most of
the cars (somehow I escaped). I later heard that someone who actually did
go to move their car after the announcement got there to find a policeman
ticketing his car and was told he might as well leave it where it was as
the ticket was staying!!! He missed 15 minutes of the game (lucky him!)
and still got charged £30.

Coventry police
force must surely think about putting signs up to stop people parking
there on match days or perhaps telling those who are parking there not to,
otherwise they will keep having to charge drivers £30 each and making
approximately £9,000 per game.

3. What you did before
the game pub/chippy.... home fans friendly?

The area surrounding the Ricoh
arena was as dull as all the other new grounds, nothing but a burger van. We
had a walk around the stadium but it is uninspiring. I noticed that there
weren't many home fans about, so either they know a) somewhere locally which
is much better to go or b) how dull it is there so they stay away until the
last minute.

4. What you thought on seeing the ground, first impressions of away end then
other sides of the ground.

The funny thing about this stadium is you don't know who it belongs to from
the outside. It looks just like most other new grounds (Walkers etc), but it
is plastered with RICOH, and no word of Coventry City apart from the Jimmy
Hill, Steve Ogrizovic etc walls which I was expecting to be a little more
interesting (not even a picture of the players in question). Oh, and a little
sign above the players entrance which is hardly worth talking about.

The stand is very steep, and being 3/4 of the way back it took it out of most
people around us to get to their seats! it was a very nice view however. The
one thing which was impressive was the spacious concourse underneath the stand
which had a few Sky Sports TVs on as well.

The other stands were similar, but the one which has the players tunnel did
at least provide some sort of different feature, in comparison to the awful
Walkers Stadium.

Wolves took 4,500 which was a decent away following, however an early
Coventry goal deflated us and it was a similar story to the last 2 seasons.
Coventry fans were poor, only about 30 chavs underneath the scoreboard were
trying to make any noise, strangely they were singing songs typically sang by
away supporters at the home crowd such as "shall we sing a song for you" I can
only imagine they are used to being outsung! The other fans woke up
occasionally to sing the one and only song Coventry seem to know.

Stewards were helpful and seemed to actually want to help you. Toilets were
OK, but I didn't go at the busy period (Half time) at which point I can
imagine it was pretty hectic with just one entrance.

6. Comment on getting away from the ground after the game

Superb. Especially after seeing we had somehow escaped a ticket (did they
run out?!) 5 minutes after getting in the car we were well on the way to
Birmingham. But I wouldn't advise anyone to park in the same place!

7. Summary of overall thoughts of the day out

Poor performance by Wolves (again), the stadium was alright, at least it
was reasonably warm due to the enclosed corners (roll on corners at Molineux).
DON'T PARK ON THE A444!!!!

Are you
an away or general football fan who has visited the Ricoh Arena recently?
If so why not submit your own review of the ground and general day out?Click hereto find out
more.